Primary school students have been graduating from the Rugby Public School in south-west New South Wales for 123 years.

But for current students Dylan and Jakobe Howard it is not looking good.

The seven-year-old twins make up half of Rugby's total student population and the tiny school is likely to be closed down at the end of the year.

"We will miss everything," said Dylan Howard. "Me and Jakobe will miss all the stuff we make."

The twins are not the only ones who will feel the loss.

The school is the heart of the Rugby community, and without it, the tiny town near Boorowa north of Canberra might die out completely.

Former student Andrew Kelly is from the graduating class of 1987. He owns a farm nearby.

"Since the shop closed and the post office, it's been difficult," he said.

"Just as a meeting point, the school's always been the focal point of the town.

"Our family's been involved in this school for probably two to three generations now, so its very sad."

The New South Wales Department of Education will temporarily close the school at the end of the year.

It will only re-open in 2012 if 10 students can be found but the community is refusing to give up just yet.

The Rugby Progress Association is advertising for new residents in Canberra newspapers.

It hopes to attract families with school-age children to Rugby, which is a two hour drive from the capital.

"Rugby's in the fortunate situation that we have affordable housing and cheap land here," said Will Kelly from the Progress Association.

"It'd be very good for families to come with younger children and set up."

Mr Kelly has many fond memories from his school days at Rugby in the 1950s.

In fact, everyone in the community will tell you what a good school it is.

"It's warm and friendly, just the best place to go really," said Lynda Collins, whose son Tom will finish grade six this year.

It is Mrs Collins' fourth child to go through the school.

"All the three that've left said that if Rugby could be a high school they would like to stay here, but of course they can't," she said.

'Well resourced'

With only four students this year, the student-staff ratio is an obvious selling point.

"You can't really not give the kids attention in this sort of situation," said the school's principal and only teacher Dominic Jones.

"So it obviously speeds up the learning processes and makes it easier for everybody."

Mr Jones says the school does not consider isolation to be a problem.

"The school's very well resourced," he said.

"We have interactive whiteboard technology. This has allowed us to maintain our social links with surrounding schools, by allowing us to do online video conferencing. So we regularly have lessons online."

If the school's doors do shut forever, children in the town will spend an hour travelling to Boorora each day.

But Mr Jones is confident enough students will be enrolled to keep the school going.

"There's always hope," he said.

"I'm the eternal optimist. We just have to wait and see what happens."

It is a numbers problem that the students - and the community - hope will be solved soon.